DSAB 628 - Disability Studies in Education (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None
This course provides an overview of dis/ability within education. We will foreground historical, social, cultural and interpretive understandings of dis/ability, contrasting them with the medical, scientific, and psychological understandings of dis/ability within the context of schooling practices. Using personal narratives, media representations, contemporary research, historical accounts, legal and policy issues, we will analyze competing claims of what dis/ability is. By analyzing multiple and interdisciplinary understandings of dis/ability from a wide variety of sources, we are able to deepen our understanding of dis/ability issues within education, and by extension, society. Students will: be introduced to, or extend their knowledge of a dis/ability studies perspective; explore various ways of understanding dis/ability (medical model, social model, charity model, civil rights model, etc.); explain the value of understanding school and classroom practices through a DSE lens; examine the history of schooling for students with and without dis/abilities; describe the differences between traditional special education and a DSE approach to understanding dis/ability; debate the validity and/or usefulness of dis/ability categories that have been constructed within the education field, such as “learning disabilities,” and “emotional disturbance”; analyze complex issues involved in inclusive education; discuss negative social perceptions, ableism, stigma, and discrimination experienced by people with dis/abilities within an education context; explain discrepancies in educational opportunities when dis/ability intersects with race, class, and gender; evaluate the experience(s) of dis/ability for urban students; consider schools as work environments for educators with dis/abilities; discuss major longitudinal and outcome studies and examine factors related to successful transitions for students with dis/abilities; discuss ways to advocate for, and with, students with dis/abilities and their parents.